Stanford GSB takes Silicon Valley programme to France and India

By Della Bradshaw

Silicon Valley know-how will soon be available to entrepreneurs in India and France as Stanford’s Graduate School of Business launches its Ignite executive course later this year in Bangalore and Paris.

Stanford Ignite has been taught in California since 2006, where it can be studied on a part-time or full-time basis. In France and India, the course will be taught on a part-time programme over nine weeks, at a cost of around £9,000.

More

IN Business School News

Economics professor Yossi Feinberg, faculty director for Stanford Ignite, says the programme takes people with little or no managerial experience, but who are very good at what they do. “It’s remarkable how much innovation there is and how much is lost through the lack of business skills.”

Stanford Ignite targets scientists, engineers and graduate students who are interested in innovation in a start-up or inside their company. “The idea is to create something that is really useful....It gives them [participants] all the tools they need to create a successful venture.”

Although the programme will reflect the curriculum of a traditional MBA programme, the topics will be focused on those elements useful to entrepreneurs, says Prof Feinberg. “It’s accounting for entrepreneurs, it’s finance for entrepreneurs – they will not go to Wall Street.”

The Indian programme, which will begin in August, will be taught in a classroom on the Infosys campus in Bangalore. In France, Stanford will work with Ecole Polytechnique, France’s premier science university. Professors will be flown out from Stanford for part of the two programmes, but much of the teaching will be done remotely.

The success of the programme will be judged by the number of successful ventures, says Prof Feinberg, a measure which is already used to assess the California programme. “I don’t have the data but I think the number (of participants) who create successful ventures is very high.”

The third international leg of the programme will be taught in Beijing in 2014 and Stanford is investigating whether to teach the programme in countries such as Chile, Brazil and Turkey.